And sometimes my students surprise me

Friday afternoon, I held my 2 p.m. class for all of 15 minutes. I collected their essays, passed out their final exam review sheets, and wished them a happy Thanksgiving. I figured my 3 p.m. class would be the same way.

At 2:56 p.m., the fire alarm started blaring. I was in my office, already gathering my course materials when it went off. Instead, I muttered a curse under my breath, grabbed my tote bag, my purse, all the course materials (that I normally wouldn't have brought with me), put on my sweater and scarf, and headed down the stairs. After five flights, I decided to check on my classroom, in case any early birds stayed in the classroom during the alarm. About three were in the room, so I motioned to them through the window to come downstairs with me, and we evacuated the building. In the short time it took me to go down eight flights of stairs, I brainstormed and problem-solved as best as one can when a siren is blasting one's already overly-sensitive eardrums. (Mine were overly-sensitive because yesterday I was experiencing an uncomfortable amount of pressure from the fluid that had accumulated during my illness earlier this week.) I set up shop against the wall on the concourse, ignoring the "safety squad" as they demanded that I move even further back. No, sorry, I knew I was safe. If I saw flames or smelled smoke, I would have moved even further back. I spread all the review sheets across the wall (there were three packets to pass out) and took up the three essays from the students who followed me. As they left, I asked them to pass the word along to their classmates, if they saw them, to find me on the concourse.

I didn't expect to see another student.

I stood out in the near-freezing temperatures, wind blowing to an annoying extent (how could I have forgotten to bring my paper weights?), and waited.

In the course of twenty minutes, I did in fact see additional waves of students, received their papers, and gave them their final exam review sheets. At one point, when I was sure I had seen the last of them (and still needed about 15 papers), I turned around and saw walking around the corner a flock of 10 students. Apparently one of my other students had called her classmate who was standing on the other side of the building with ten classmates. I was so grateful for their ability to find one another and pass the message along.

By 3:25, I had all 30 papers and was on my way to the transit to go home.

While I understand they had a vested interest in turning in their papers on time, I am also still grateful that they didn't flake out on me. I expected most of them to e-mail me, whining in some form or another. I was trying to come up with a plan B for this Thanksgiving holiday: do I accept their papers by e-mail? Do I want to print off 30 6-page papers on my personal printer? Do I give them an extension to the next Monday, even though my 2 p.m. class didn't get one? I'm grateful that I wasn't made to even give these questions any additional attention.

Sometimes my students choose to behave brainlessly. Sometimes they surprise me, though.